240 Modern Dogs. 



straight, and short. This great strength, muscularity, 

 and immense bone are innovations of modern times, 

 as our forefathers who kept bulldogs apparently 

 were satisfied with limbs no thicker than pipe stems. 

 How much of this abnormal growth of bone is the 

 result of rickets in puppyhood is hard to say. 



" Here again is evidence of a departure from what 

 was admired, and sought after, but a very few years 

 ago. I refer to what was called ' a pear-shaped 

 front,' an expression which signified that the dog's 

 chest across the shoulders when viewed from in 

 front was very wide, that his fore legs appeared as 

 if bowed, and that his pasterns nearly touched. 

 But such a conformation is now denounced by 

 nearly every judge of the breed, though I myself 

 regret that ' pear-shaped fronts ' are now depre- 

 cated so strongly. I admit that a dog so formed is 

 bound to have a ' wobbly ' action when travelling, 

 but it was a characteristic of the breed. Further, it 

 had this advantage, that a dog so shaped in front 

 was always allowed to stand naturally in the ring, 

 whereas nowadays it is quite common to see dogs 

 with their front legs deliberately propped as far 

 apart as possible by their owners in the judging 

 ring, so much so that judges have to lift dogs 

 gently off the ground in front by their chain and 

 collar, so as to allow their front legs to assume a 



